Anti-Islamist movement Pegida surfaces in Spain

The anti-Islamic movement that is growing in Germany opens a new branch in
Spain, the group claims

A protestor holds a poster with a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel reading 'Mrs Merkel, her is the people' during a rally of PegidaPhoto: AP

By AFP

5:31PM GMT 14 Jan 2015

An anti-Islamic movement that is growing in Germany has opened a branch in Spain following last weeks attacks in France, the group said on Wednesday.

The Spanish wing of Pegida was launched on Twitter on January 8, the day after an attack by Islamist gunmen on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris that left 12 people dead including some of the country's best-loved cartoonists.

"Islam has no place in free and democratic societies like Europe," the group said in one of its first Twitter messages that day.

The Spanish branch of the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" (Pegida) has just over 800 followers on its Twitter page and over 2,700 likes on its Facebook page.

"We are preparing a demonstration by Pegida Spain, where members of Pegida Germany will attend. We will publish the date on Twitter and announce it by email," the group said in an e-mail sent to AFP.

It had initially planned to hold its first demonstration on Monday outside Madrid's main mosque but called that off after government authorities refused to grant permission and suggested a different location.

Pegida has voiced a wide range of grievances and railed against diverse enemies, not just Islam and asylum-seekers, but also the media and a political elite whom they accuse of diluting Germany's Christian-based culture with multi-culturalism.

Supporters of the Pegida movement march for the first time in their own version of protest, which they have dubbed "Legida," in Leipzig

Activists have announced plans for Pegida spin-offs in Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia, while other European far-right groups have voiced support for the German movement.

The Spanish Pegida's Twitter account is already following those of several far-right Spanish groups including the Falange, the nationalist party that provided the ideological basis for Francisco Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.

Spain has about 1,000 mosques, Islamic cultural centres and prayer halls and around two million Muslims out of a total population of around 47 million people, according to the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain.